Fourth-ranked UVA led by 15 at the half, but had to survive 7-for-27 shooting in the second half before defeating #25 Wisconsin, 53-46, to take the championship game in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
The ‘Hoos (6-0) led 33-18 at the break, but couldn’t get much going, with any consistency, in the final 20 minutes.
A D’Mitrick Trice free throw cut the UVA lead to five, at 40-35, with 9:46 left, and the margin would stay in that range pretty much the rest of the way.
An Ethan Happ layup with 1:37 left got the Badgers within 49-44, but De’Andre Hunter answered with a drive to the hoop with 1:22 to go to push the lead back to seven.
Another Happ post bucket got it back down to five with 1:12 left. Kyle Guy and Hunter then each made 1-of-2 free throws in separate trips, around a Wisconsin turnover and a missed layup.
Hunter had 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting to lead Virginia, which got 11 points from Ty Jerome, who shot just 5-of-17 from the floor, but had five assists.
Happ had 22 points and 15 rebounds for Wisconsin, which shot 43.8 percent from the floor (21-of-48) but committed 13 turnovers.
Virginia shot 37 percent (20-of-54) but had only five turnovers on the day.
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